Format a table of contents

When you add a table of contents in Word, you can customize the way it appears. For example, you can select how many heading levels to show and whether to show dotted lines between the entries and the page numbers.

You can also change the text formatting of your table of contents, and it will keep that formatting no matter how many times you update your table of contents.

Format the text in your table of contents

To change the formatting of the table of contents that Word generates, you need to change the style for each level in the table of contents. This is separate from the styles that you applied to the headings in your document.

After you make the changes you want to the style, Word uses that style each time it updates the table of contents.

On the References tab, in the Table of Contents group, click Table of Contents, and then click Insert Table of Contents.

In the Table of Contents dialog box, click Modify.

In the Styles list, click the level that you want to change, and then click Modify.

In the Modify Style dialog box, make the formatting changes that you want, and then click OK.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all the levels that you want to display in your table of contents.